Snippet #11745

Free Union Space
Taurus System
Various Places

Taurus
The fleet above Taurus quickly wipes out all space-based weapons in orbit, then move on to the ground targets. Their beam weapons can reach clear across from one side of the planet's orbit with pinpoint accuracy. Plasma lances are designed to hit fast moving ships at much farther ranges; drifting satellites are mincemeat for them. In a matter of a few minutes, over ninety-seven percent of defense systems in orbit are removed, with only a handful even firing back. None of the low-powered lasers or mass-drivers even penetrate the shields of the ships.

With orbit targets done, the ships focus on the planet. The Xr'lii'ra are not evil. They do not enjoy king, but instead treat everything with logic. It makes them appear pitiless, but in reality they are just efficient. Scans from the fleet begin to pick out ground-based defenses. Most are missile bases, some are energy platforms. Few missiles fly from the ground to hit the ships and are easily shot down short of their targets. The Xr'lii'ra do not know that the Free Union government has been stealing funds from the military budget for years, meaning that most of the stations either have little or no ammo, or have enough malfunctioning equipment to render them useless. The laser and maser stations are even worse off. The shield stations seem to be missing entirely. Either they are as worse off as the rest of the military, or there never were shields in the first place. If the Mind could laugh, it would. The Hybrids actually laugh as Plasma lances smear all of the bases and fortresses from above like some kind of orbital doctor with a scalpel. Not a single major population center is damaged beyond minor concussion effects. When a beam of plasma as hot as the center of a sun hits a base going a high percentage of the speed of light, the thermal bloom can travel for miles around, almost as much as a nuclear weapon.

Antimatter missiles would be a Bad Idea to use on the planet's surface. The price to remove the radiation is not worth the easy kills. Instead, the ships use their tractor beams on all the convenient rubble around them. Some of the ground stations resist the beam weapons due to extremely sturdy construction. They do not resist when a tens-of-thousands-of-tons space station is dropped on them. Using debris both saves resources and saves the biosphere below.

After about two hours of the above bombarding, a message is sent using an omni-directional signal. Even the secret forces that legally aren't in the system can hear.

"The Xr'lii'ra Empire will annex this system after the current pacification has ceased. All Free Union planets, bases, resources, population, and all other assets will belong to the Xr'lii'ra. To the Citizens: Your leader has decided to attack our shipping and kill our people. Thus, steps must be taken to alleviate this problem. If any citizen wishes to leave the system, they may do so only after hostilities have ended. Please, stay in your homes and do not panic. It will all be over soon." the voice announces.

Troops, what meager amount that are not engaged in the various stations and bases throughout the system, are dispatched to the capital of Taurus. Only the capital. There just is not enough troops left to secure anything else. Walking vehicles, tanks with spider legs for the most part, stride down the streets while infantry-sized combat forms scurry around them. Most fan out into buildings, checking for weapons. No civilians are molested. The insect monsters are... polite even. Most talk to the people, using proper, if wordy, language. They even say please and thank you!

Quickly the city is subjugated. What little resistance is cleansed from either orbit or with heavy weapons. Very few ground troops are sent in the suicide attacks happening in orbital stations. The vehicles use plasma emitters and their crystal-chemical explosive missiles to smash anything that looks threatening. In short order the poor excuse for a militia is routed into many little, slaggy, melted pieces. Messages are broadcast from loudspeakers on the tanks, asking for the militia to put down their weapons. If they do, they are not arrested or attacked in any way. If they don't, they die. In short order the capital, and the whole system, is under Xr'lii'ra control.


Rinewood

Inside the Omen, Captain Nellar wakes up in a room of black. It takes a second, but his night vision kicks in and he stares at a black, segmented ceiling. It is extremely dim. Xr'lii'ra see with inhuman clarity and have an inhuman nightvision. They can also see in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. To them, the halls are bright and shining. To Nellar, it looks like the Xr'lii'ra have only a fraction of the light they need. He notices that he is laying on a table in a smallish room. A rank of tubes jutting from the wall attach to a rounded pad to his left. It looks like it closes clamshell style, but he doubts it closed on him.

He feels great to put it simply. No exhaustion, no aches, no pain at all. He reaches up a hand and feels the spot where he was hit with that flechette gun. I am going to kill her, he thinks as he touches a rough pad on his scalp.

That is a regrowth pad. It will facilitate grown of new skin as well as protect the wound. <Please, do not pick at it. It is too armored to be moved even if you wanted to...> a deep, echoing voice explains. The speaker sounds not quite bored, more distracted and polite.

It takes a second for Nellar to realize that the voice was not spoken out loud. He heard it in his head! "What the hell? Are there psy-adepts arond?" he asks the walls in a panicked voice.

<Not as you understand the term 'Psy Adept', Captain.> The voice tells Nellar, <All Xr'lii'ra are part of one mind. We are one being. Each Xr'lii'ra is a part of a single mind. Me. While we were fixing the minor concussion you had, we added a few changes that allowed Us to talk to you directly.>

"Changes?"

<For someone with an IQ like yours, you are woefully ignorant> The voice notes. It says it matter-of-factly, not as an insult, but as an observation. <Did you think that mental abilities just appeared from pure will? All mental abilites have a foundation in the brain. We simply added the required parts to connect properly.>

"Okay... why the fuck are you messing with my brain?!" Nellar blurts out. Frankly, he is freaking out. "You capture me, and now you're altering my mind? Get me off this ship! I need to get out! I-"

<We did that for a reason.>

"-need to... what? Why?"

<We would like you to join us. You are a powerful military mind, squandered in a useless backwater system. We can use your intelligence to the fullest.>

"Do I get a say in this?"

<Of course. If you decide not to, you will be taken to the planet with the second wave of occupation forces.>

"Forces? You conquered the system? Why!? What did we do?"

<Pirates have started to prey on our shipping, what little we have. This system was a major hub for their trade. To fix our problem, we had to cut off their home. Now that the system is in shambles from battle, we now must repair it.>

"Just like that? You just come in, kill everyone, and take it all in the name of peace?" Nellar snarls in anger. So many dead. Friends, family... all for pirate extermination! "Why didn't you just send out smaller cruisers to find the pirate ships and kill them? Or even just escort your goddamn freighters! You killed thousands for no reason!"

<There was plenty reason. This was far more efficient than your proposals. Why waste months with skirmishes when you can destroy decades worth of pirate buildup and most of the ships in their docks? Without their markets to fence their goods, the remaining pirates will leave. Now, with only a minor battlegroup we have removed the majority of the pirates. It is far more efficient.>

"Wha... what? More efficient! Why the hell would I ever join you?"

<Think about it, Captain Nellar,> the voice tells him. It sounds annoyed, but not angry, <you are the man that ran the fleet. The fleet that lost and couldn't do a thing to stop Us, the evil bugs from space. Yes, we know what the other races call us. Bugs. Space-roaches. Grubs. It is fitting, I suppose... but what do you thing the people on Taurus will think of you. Because you could not stop us, thousands of stubborn men and woman died. Hundreds of civilians as well. When miltia bunker in buildings full of people, they are just asking for us to kill unarmed civilians.> the Mind says with sadness, <Now they could hate us, and they will, but they cannot connect to us. We are too alien. But you, Captain, are human. They can hate you with ease. And they will. You are now one of the top five hated men in the Free Union. Even now the people curse your name. The Man Who Lost. You have no place here. Come with us. Also... these people are alien to us. For all of our knowledge, we do not understand them very well. A man on the inside could vouch for them, help us help them. Could you be this man?>

All through the conversation, the Mind has been reading Nellar's emotions. Curiosity and fear started, followed by blind anger and hate, mixed with grief. Now, it is eclipsed by reluctant agreement. The hate is still there, as is the grief, but that will go away once Nellar sees the event from the Xr'lii'ra point of view. Even before he speaks, nanobots built into the patch in his skull begin to propagate through his system. They start to replicate rapidly, while also modifying his DNA and body structure on a molecular level. In a week or so he will be a true Hybrid.

"Yes." Nellar mumbles.

<Good. Would you like to watch the pirates you most obviously hate be wiped out? It is ironic, is it not? The roaches are the ones exterminating, rather than the other way around.> the Xr'lii'ra notes with humor.

"Uhh... how?"

<All Xr'lii'ra are connected. We can see waht they see and hear what they hear. Would you like to?>

"I guess so."

Suddenly, Nellar can see Rinewood, a major warehouse in orbit of Taurus, probably from an optical sensor on the outside of one of the ships. It is a wreck in all respects. Half of the metal monstrosity is a slagged wreck, the other is swarming with black, instectoid forms. Nellar takes a look, then blinks and looks again.

"Why is that station so damaged?"

<We did not attack it. It was like that when we arrived. Also, there is currently a batteship-sized wreck nearby. It still retains enough heat to prove that it was destroyed recently. By who, we do not know.>

"Also, why is there a piece missing?" Nellar leans forwards, although there is no screen. Either way the image zooms in obligingly. A large chunk is gone, with a clean cut in one corner.

<That. There have been a couple of... odd events during the engagement. While we were engaging the Free Union fleet, we detected a couple of Somethings on gravitational sensors. Not sensor ghosts, but probably cloaked ships. Defiantly cruiser-sized vessels, with some kind of cloaking system. At the same time a small missile attack hit the nose of one of the dreadnoughts, coupled with laser weapons fire. The Free Union doesn't have DEW weapons, or not any that could hit at the ranged we were fighting from. From that, it can be concluded that a third party was here before. They cut a section of the base away, one of the storage hangers, then left when we arrived.>

"Interesting..."

<We believe there is a forth party as well.> The Mind starts. Nellar's view switches to that of a hallway. He can tell that the view is from another Hybrid. The ground is littered with corpses. It looks like an entire squad was ambushed and slaughtered.

"This the new guy?" he hears. "See these guys? We didn't do it. I just arrived. That means someone... or someones is here before us. We, men and the other three Hybrids are gonna go ahead and see who these someones are. Wanna watch?" the Hybrid says with a laugh.